Bless Your Heart

Yesterday I went to the big mall with Shannon, my sister Sara and my nephews. I love this picture of Joey with his foot all up on the table while we were having lunch. They were having some great sales on baby clothes and Shannon racked up. While there we ran into Melissa and her family. It was good to see them and Melissa looked great! We also saw some cute nursery art. While looking at it I was thinking I can so do this. I took a picture for inspiration later. I’m thinking I’d like the nursery to be fun and bright and we’ll go with a bug theme- ladybugs (of course) and dragonflies, bees, butterflies, the works. After the mall Shannon and I worked on some crafty business and I completed a shower gift. I can’t post a picture yet cause the shower is next week, but it’s way cute!

1. Thank you to everyone who left a comment and de-lurked! I hate that word though, so I just think of you as silent visitors, window shoppers at blog town. Anyway, thanks again and let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see more of, less of, etc.

2. Up for Grabs: I had a package on my porch today that included a coupon for $5.00 off any Enfamil baby formula purchase. The coupon expires Feb 26, 2006 so the first person who wants it just email me at blessblog at yahoo dot com with your name and address and I’ll pop it in the mail for you.

3. Adoption news: there is none. We put the paper chase on hold over the holidays. But starting next week I’m diving in full force again. I want to be DTC by March if possible. I also picked the holiday season to refinance the house. IDIOT timing on my part. We’ve just been so busy. But I’m on it like blue bonnet now!

4. Partay: My MIL needs a few things from Pampered Chef so I thought I’d turn that one order into an online party. If you would like to purchase anything from my Pampered Chef party just click here. If you spend more than $50 you will get these fabulous heart themed kitchen towels free! In order for your order to be credited to my party you have to type in my name on the website. Leave a comment with your email address or email me for my last name if you don’t have it. If you are local click ship to host to save on shipping and I will deliver your order to you. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, cell mates. Spread the word! Thank you so much!

I’ve been seeing a meme floating around to list 5 weird things about yourself. 5 is such a small number. I’m sure given 30 minutes in a quiet room and transcriipts of this blog you guys could come up with 5000 weird things about me. I will speak to one right now because of a conversation I had with my sister that made me realize: 1. I am not alone in my weirdness. 2. It may be in my genes. 3. Thank the Lord I’m adopting and can’t pass on the crazy DNA.
I’m freakish about the mail. Jon’s not allowed to check it because he might throw out things he considers “Junk”. Hey, I don’t know how I got on the off shore sports betting list either but if those nice people took the time to mail me something then I want to at least skim over it! I can’t wait for the mail to come and it sucks if all we get is flyers and ads. So I was outside with the pugs the other day talking to my sister on the phone when this conversation occured:

Me: Ohh, the mail’s here.
S: Really? I wish mine was here. *Sidebar- Sara’s mail person is such a bitty that they won’t deliver AT ALL if a car is parked too close to the box. OMG.
Me: Yeah, they just pulled up.
S: Mine always comes so late.
Me: Well if you want to hold on I’ll go check it and tell you what I got.
S: That would be cool. I love the mail.
Me: Me too, me too.

Today is my mom’s birthday. Happy Birthday Mama! I believe she is 37 or so. For the longest time she had my littlest sister convinced she was 33. Now she’s a little more seasoned, but still looks great!

Today is also the day I found out that this week is National DeLurking Week. I’m not a big fan of the term “lurk” or any of its forms, but I am a fan of greetings. That came out so awkward. Point is, I want to know who’s out there? Who’s reading me? How ya doin? Send me an email or leave a comment. I don’t bite. I know you’re out there- you guys burn up Statcounter with over 100 hits a day here, so say hi why dontcha?

I was coming home from the dentist in the pouring rain. I went to turn down the side street to get into my neighborhood and I saw this big, blue garbage truck coming my way. It was looking kind of wobbly so I pulled over as much as I could on the 2 lane street. Then the front passenger wheel went off the pavement and it started sliding. It got going a little faster and next thing I knew it turned right over and slid down the embankment! It was like a big blue elephant falling down a muddy hill. I turned on my hazards and grabbed my phone and dialed 911 while I was running over to the truck. This van stopped and a man jumped out and sprung like spiderman with the greatest of ease up the side of the truck. He opened the door to the cab and while he was helping the two workers out I was yelling “Are you ok? Need an ambulance?” while talking to 911. Both the men were fine and once they got to the ground safely, Spiderman hopped back down from the truck, jumped in his van and sped away, presumably to save more lives.

So, you know how we made 37 trips to IKEA to get shades for our den? Well, turns out our windows were too long for anything at IKEA. I was dying, thinking we’d have to deal with those ratty mini blinds forever or order custom shades that would cost as much as a car. Then my sister told me to look at JC Penney’s. I hadn’t been there in years but I went online and found some fabulous shades for only $15 each! Turns out they are still on sale if anyone’s looking. I found a coupon code for free shipping and they were here pronto. Jon put them up the other day and I really think they warm up the room.

My sister Sara is very creative. She has done the coolest thing with one of the walls in her family room. They framed out an area and she painted a white, high gloss matt. Then they used chalkboard paint to fill in the “picture”. So now she can change out the pictures any time she wants. This time around she has a birthday cake to celebrate Joey’s first birthday on the 18th and the Panther’s logo to celebrate a fabulous season! Click to enlarge.

Jon’s parents came over today to watch the Panther game (we won- yay!) and to help install the new kitchen light. Plus, they had a hefty IKEA order to pick up. Jon’s mom brought eggnog pie for dessert. I’d never heard of egg nog pie, much less tried it. It was sooo good! While I like the taste of egg nog I can never drink more than a couple sips though because it is so thick and rich. But in pie form- delicious! Here’s a recipe I found online, when my MIL finds the recipe she used (she’s famous for making delicious meals and losing the recipe) I’ll update. This one sounds really close to how she described it. Stove top cooking then chilling then good eating!

We spent the day today over at Marc & Sara’s. Jon helped Marc install a ceiling fan in their master bedroom while I played with our nephews and watched movies with Sara. Joey is trying so hard to walk. He gets so excited after the first couple of steps though and falls down. So cute. Jake is turning in to such a little ham. He’ll run over and grab my camera and give it to me saying “Cheese Shanny!” meaning he wants his picture taken. I’ll snap a photo and he’ll want to immediately preview it on the camera screen. These kids will probably never know what its like to be photographed by an old fashioned film camera that requires at least an hour to develop! While we were there Jake and Joey showed us their new toys Santa brought them. They got a fabulous play tent and a karaoke machine. Jake loves singing Hey Ya! and demonstrated that the best place to sing was the tent.
When it got dark Jake showed us how the light we gave him for Christmas looks in his room. He has a space themed room so this light was perfect. I was so pleased how great it looks and how it shoots stars and planets and moons all over the room! I know this may be an overload of little boy cuteness, but I can’t help it- I’m a proud aunt! Oh and it is just so cute to see how Jon is bonding with the boys. Jake wants to go wherever Unca Jon is and they give each other five all the time. So sweet!

We went to Atlanta today for yet another IKEA trip. We had ill fitting roman shades to return and a list a mile long from friends and family to fill. Jon loved the travellator (sort of a cross between escalator and people mover that locks in your buggy as you go downstairs to the parking deck). I swear, how did we all function before technology? We used Google Local on my phone to get us there (as we all know I’m directionally challenged). While at the store we checked in via mobile phone (Jon to his mom) and BlackBerry email (me to Shannon) –I have it for work, I’m not that fancy. It’s a total tax write off, but I’ll admit it is very cool. And I got mine for only $49, and work is paying for that. My adoption budget would surely not let me be this stylin.– So in less than 5 minutes we both knew to increase our orders due to IKEA’s fabulous prices and selection. Our purchases for ourselves were few, but we did get a nice replacement light for our kitchen. Here’s Jon and his dad taking down the old boxy flourescent light: And here’s the new non-flourescent, much more modern light. While at IKEA we also looked at the crib and dresser and toy chest and changing table we want for our girls. I picked out window sheers and we looked at bedding. None of these things will be purchased for months and months of course, but it was sure fun to dream!